Exemplary embodiments herein generally relate to vehicles and components for vehicles and, more particularly, to a fuel tank for a vehicle.
A conventional fuel tank on a vehicle includes a container of fixed volume and geometry. By way of example, FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional fuel tank 10 having a fixed volume and geometry. In particular, the fuel tank 10 includes a container body 12 formed of a rigid material, such as hard plastic or steel. A container volume is defined by the interior of the container body for holding fuel for a vehicle, particularly for the internal combustion engine of the vehicle. As is known, the container body 12 can include a first aperture 14 and a second aperture 16, both defined along an upper wall or portion 18 of the container body. The first aperture 14 can be configured to receive fuel, such as when filling the container volume and to pass fuel, such as when operating the vehicle (i.e., supplying fuel to the internal combustion engine). The second aperture 16 can be configured to vent the holding volume such as during refilling thereof or to admit air or fuel vapors, such as when fuel is depleted from the container volume.
A typical fuel tank, such as the fuel tank 10 of FIG. 1, does not offer flexibility to increase or decrease fuel volume, such as based on customer need for driving range requirements, or overall size and shape, such as to accommodate the vehicle geometry (i.e., particular vehicle layouts). For example, vehicle manufacturers presently employ many varieties of fuel tanks having various configurations, such configurations often corresponding to the type of vehicle (e.g., a small fuel efficient vehicle or a larger sport utility vehicle) and being tailored to particular vehicle layout conditions. Representative fuel tanks used on current production vehicles, particularly passenger vehicles, are a tall/short saddle-type fuel tank used on the Acura RDX, a low/long saddle-type fuel tank used on BMW's X3, a long asymmetrical tank used on Toyota's RAV4 (and also on Nissan's Frontier and Ford's Discovery), an L-shaped saddle fuel tank used on Honda's CRV and Acura MDX, a waterfall L-shaped saddle used on Hyundai's Santa Fe and Porsche's Cayenne, and a low flat trapezoid fuel tank used on the Honda Fit, among others.